On 16 April 2022, in the semi-finals of the FA Cup, Liverpool defeated Manchester City 3-2 to advance to the FA Cup final.
Liverpool's first goal was scored from a corner.
In the 9th minute of the game, Liverpool corner kick was opened, Ibrahima Konatai "Tarzan pressed the top", the header broke the goal, for Liverpool to open the record.
This is very noteworthy.
It was the 17th direct goal from Liverpool's corner this season (12 in the Premier League, 2 in the Champions League and 3 in the Cup) and was the most corner-goal of any Premier League team.
How did Liverpool become a "corner kick monster"? Then the name Neuro11 must be mentioned.
Who is Neuro11?
(i)
With the development of science and technology, the training of modern football is becoming more and more technological.
For a long time, football clubs and national teams have used a variety of high-tech modern training equipment to raise the physical fitness of football players to a higher level, so that he can compete with strong opponents in the most intense football matches.
The world-class athletes who represent the high level of football can be said to have developed their bodies to their limits.
In addition, many clubs will also use a lot of unconventional technology to improve the combat effectiveness of their teams, for example, more than 3/4 of the Premier League clubs will now install GPS trackers on players to collect players' running data and range of activities.
Now, the mysterious "neuroscience" has also begun to enter the field of football, and Neuro11 is such a sports training institution.
(ii)
Neuro11 is a neuroscience sports training institution in Potsdam, the capital of the German state of Brandenburg, co-founded by Niklas Häusler, PhD in neuroscience and psychology, Patrick Häntschke, former Bundesliga youth player, and Fabian Steinberg, PhD in neuroscience and sports science. Provides elite athletes with state-of-the-art mental strength training".
In training, coaches (also known as neuroscientists) tie electrodes around players' heads, monitor electrical activity in their brains as they perform actions (penalties, free kicks or corners), and collect brain data based on the players' mental state.
With this data, coaches can know when players are at their best and how long they've been at their best.
Rely on the results of data analysis to develop a training plan for players that is in line with the individual situation of the players, helping players to stay in the "zone" for a long time.
Neuro11 has worked with a number of Bundesliga clubs before, but Premier League Liverpool FC is Neuro11's first official client.
(iii)
Pep Leinders, Jurgen Klopp's assistant coach, a football coach obsessed with innovative training, learned about Neuro11's "mental strength training" in 2019 and he strongly agrees with Neuro11's philosophy of applying neuroscience to football training.
Rendez introduced "mental strength training" to Klopp, who agreed with it and has been happy to introduce innovation into training to improve their level of play.
"Jurgen and I believe in these guys and their ideas and we hope the team can add stability in this area of set-pieces. For example, as away goals are cancelled in European matches, penalty shootouts will increase, and European matches prove that penalties ultimately determine the course of the game. It has been, it will always be. Patrick and Nikolas have given us new momentum in terms of accuracy of serves and shots, and I really hope that will pay off. ”
Klopp was originally prepared to introduce this new training method as soon as possible, but due to the impact of the epidemic, liverpool did not establish a partnership with Neuro11 until the summer of 2021.
At the 2021 Liverpool pre-season training camp, Liverpool players were exposed to this new way of training for the first time, and the players carried electrodes on their heads to monitor brain activity, although it seemed a little disturbing, but the players were still excited about this "new thing".
Through data on the brain activity recorded by the players' electrodes during training, neuroscientists can understand the players' brain response to stress and fatigue, and they fine-tune the players' set-piece and penalty process to allow the players to better take set-pieces in a stressed or fatigued state.
It started with major set-piece players like Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mohammed Salah, and then spread to all players.
Since then, the two founders of Neuro11, Dr NickLas Khusler and Patrick Hanchick, have been regularly present at the AXA Training Centre in Liverpool.
In the pre-match press conference for Liverpool against Norwich in the FA Cup, Jurgen Klopp elaborated on the impact of neuro11 on the team.
"The incredible impact, all the players are very excited about it, it's about getting the players to use the right mindset to do what we do on the pitch before giving a set-piece. Everything is measured, there are neuroscientists, which is very interesting and very important for us. ”
'It's a very interesting new chapter for us because it's not just penalties, although last week we did a lot of things about penalties because of the upcoming final, and about free kicks, and all kinds of set-pieces.'
(iv)
So, how effective is Neuro11's "mental strength training"?
At least in Liverpool it was successful.
In the run-up to the League Cup final between Liverpool and Chelsea, the two founders of Neuro11, Dr Nikolas Khusler and Patrick Hanchick, have been helping the team on the training ground with set-pieces and penalties, and they even arranged the order of appearances of all 11 players for the penalty shootout that could occur in the final.
The results were all seen.
On 27 February 2022, liverpool won the title by beating Chelsea 11-10 in the final of the 2021-22 English League Cup in London, England.
Liverpool hit all 11 penalties in 11 rounds.
After winning the League Cup, Klopp shouted excitedly at reporters in an interview: "Praise Neuro11! ”
Neuro11's Dr. Nikolas Khusler and Patrick Hanchick watched the whole process live and were equally excited to see their work pay off.
After the final, Klopp told liverpool club state media LFCTV: "Somehow I feel like we deserve it, Quivien Kelleher (goalkeeper) deserves it the most, and I have to say we have Neuro11. ”
Apart from penalties, Liverpool have scored 15 straight free-kicks this season, counting 17 corners to produce goals directly, and liverpool are the best performing team in the Premier League when it comes to set-pieces.
Now that Liverpool have won the League Cup, the FA Cup has reached the final, the Champions League has reached the semi-finals, and the Premier League is only 1 point behind Manchester City, who can guarantee that Liverpool will not complete the feat of 4 titles this season?
No team in England has won four trophies in a season, and if Liverpool really makes history, Neuro11 is a part of the equation.
(5)
So far, the new technology of "mental strength training" can only be applied to set-pieces, but Neuro11 believes that if players can learn to control their own mentality when taking a set-piece, then they can control their mentality at the rest of the game as well.
For example, if players can feel excited or frustrated during a game, they can control their emotions to avoid unnecessary fouls.
Neuro11 is also well aware of the shortcomings of "mental strength training", where players may not be subjected to the same pressure in training compared to set-pieces in key matches.
When the team is behind by one goal in the knockout rounds, in the final minutes of the game, the team is awarded a well-placed free kick or penalty, and the pressure felt by the players at that time cannot be simulated in training.
But Neuro11 has always believed that this kind of psychological analysis based on detailed, real data can help players improve their psychological quality, "neuroscience" has become the "cutting-edge technology" in the field of football, and in the future, "mental strength training" will become a regular technology in football.
I'm McRae, taking you to learn more about more interesting football.